


A God-Awful Small Affair

by Duck_Life



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars: Rebels, Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Gen, Lightsabers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-09-08
Updated: 2015-09-08
Packaged: 2018-04-19 19:07:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,451
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4757612
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Duck_Life/pseuds/Duck_Life
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Luke never gets the message from R2, and when he eventually does make it off the farm, he's doing it on the wrong side of the war.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A God-Awful Small Affair

Luke wakes up terrified and cold. The fear, he immediately tries to crush down. There isn’t much he can do about the cold—not out here.

“’Morning,” someone says to him; his eyes swivel around him. He recognizes neither of the people in the room with him. The man leaning against the wall looks human. The woman leaning over him is Togrutan, and pissed.

“You want to tell us what you’re doing all by yourself all the way out here?” the Togrutan asks. He can hear what she’s not saying— _all the way out here by the rebel base_. The realization that he’s handcuffed comes suddenly.

“You wouldn’t believe me if I told you,” he says, immediately hating how it comes out. It sounds like he’s covering something up. In reality, he’s got nothing to hide but his own embarrassment. Some dumb kid, struck by wanderlust. Of course he was going to jump at the first chance to travel through space, even if it was on the Empire’s nickel.

But it’s been months now. He’s _learned_. “Try me,” the woman says coldly.

“Well,” Luke says, fidgeting uncomfortably, “um, I wanted… to join the Rebellion.”

She actually laughs out loud. “Oh, well okay then,” she says, faux-cheerful. “Awesome! Welcome to the Rebel Alliance, we hope you survive the experience. So exactly how long were you planning on staying with us before skipping off to report to your Emperor?”

Luke just shakes his head. “I’m serious. I never wanted this.”

“Except that you flew here in an Imperial ship.”

There’s a pause as he glances around. “Isn’t… this an Imperial ship?”

“Yes, that we _stole_ fair and square.” Luke blinks. “You know, kid, if we weren’t so desperate…” She sighs. “But we are. So. You’ll of course be kept locked up for the foreseeable future. But if you can provide any valuable insight on the Empire…”

He’s surprised, having expected to be grilled, maybe tortured. The woman looks tired, exhausted to the bone, and he finds himself wondering how many people have been in his position, how many times she’s gone through this. People like him who picked the wrong side and regretted it. Or, worse, people not like him. People who lied and were believed, Imperial spies who deteriorated whatever sense of trust this stranger had.

“We’ll bring you some food, at some point,” she says, straightening up. “Sit tight.” He expects they’ll take him to the base, but they probably won’t let him witness the trip.

“Can I,” he says, feeling ridiculous but needing some small piece of information, “can I get a name?”

“Don’t you have one of your own?” she says bluntly. After a moment’s pause, she tells him, “Ahsoka Tano,” with the tone of someone who can give her name freely and have nothing left to lose from it.

When he responds, “I’m Luke Skywalker,” a shadow passes over her face. The lines around her mouth draw tighter, making her look older.

All she says is, “That must be a very common name.”

* * *

 

“He’s your father,” she tells him, on a mission gone wrong and Ahsoka’s sure she’ll die and she _has_ to tell him, has to put it out there. “Kid. Darth Vader is your father.”

She screwed up. They both survive. Luke has a plethora of questions and can’t bring himself to ask them, which is just as well. She can’t bring herself to answer any.

* * *

 

And, well, obviously the confrontation would come. It always does, eventually. Vader goes after Luke viciously and she throws herself between them, swinging her lightsaber and meeting him at every step. “He’s your son,” she reminds him, reminds him because she’s certain he must know by now. “He’s Padmé’s son. You remember Padmé?” Arcs of light meet in midair, crack against each other. “You remember _me_?”

“I… do remember you,” he says. “Snips.”

“Go to hell.”

“I did,” says Vader. “Welcome.”

They fight. Over and under, back and forth, so in tune that the battle seems captivating. Luke feels helpless standing by. He also feels like the saddest thing in the world must be two people who know each other so well that they’re so perfectly matched in a fight.

At one point, Darth Vader raises his arm as if going for the killing blow, and rather than shield herself, Ahsoka turns to look straight at Luke and he thinks, _This is it, she’s going to die to push me and I’m not ready, I can’t do this_.

The lightsaber comes down—and she ducks and rolls, narrowly scraping death. They go on in this manner for some time before she tries again at her earlier tactic. “Anakin,” she calls across the metaphysical void between them, “you weren’t like this. And you don’t have to be.”

It’s enough to make him hesitate, just for a second. She keeps going. “Listen. You can leave the Dark Side. It’s happened before.”

And suddenly, the illuminated red blade vanishes. More sure of herself, Ahsoka moves forward, still talking. “You can change. You can fix things. Anakin.” Hands up, she steps toward him, acting the way one might around a wild bear. “It’s okay.” She stands right across from him now. The black mask betrays no emotion, but she’s got him standing still, listening to her. Maybe that’s enough. ‘’It’s gonna be okay, Ana— _khuh._ ”

When Vader reactivates his lightsaber it spears right through her stomach and her eyes go wide. Luke hears the screaming long before realizing it’s coming from him. “ _No_ ,” he calls out, but even as he rushes forward his father is leaving, retracting his weapon and stalking away, finished for now. Ahsoka Tano crumbles to the floor before Luke reaches her.

“I can’t believe him,” he says to her, kneeling at her side. “I can’t—I thought he was…”

“Alright, don’t get all self-righteous,” she breathes, shaky. “I… was gonna do the same thing to him.” She’s dying, the life fading out of her. He can _feel_ it, and if he could stomach a look downward he would see it, too, the hole plunged through her. “Listen to me,” she says, grappling for his hand. “I couldn’t kill him.”

“You-”

“ _Listen_ ,” she insists. “I couldn’t kill him and I couldn’t save him. But I think… I think you could do both.” Her chest rattles when she tries to inhale. “And you _have_ to do one or the other, Luke, you _have to_. And I don’t care which, just…” Another shallow breath. One of her last. “Just don’t let him go on like this.”

* * *

 

When Luke arrives in the hangar of the new-and-unimproved Death Star, he takes a moment just standing there, reflecting on his last chance to turn back.

That’s when he realizes he’s not alone.

On the other side of the hangar stands a woman his age, her dark hair rolled back in tight braids. “Excuse me,” he says, because she can’t possibly be working with the Empire, not in those clothes, “you should probably leave.”

She regards him. “You know,” she says, “that’s what I was just thinking.” She makes no move to do so. “What exactly are you doing here?”

Luke straightens up. “I have business with Darth Vader.”

“Oh, well so do I,” she says. “But you should probably go first because my business with Darth Vader is killing Darth Vader.”

“You- you can’t do that,” he says, sounding too petulant to his own ears.

“And why not?”

Luke splutters. “He’s my _father_.”

For the first time, this unflappable stranger looks positively flapped. “Excuse me?”

“It’s hard to explain.”

“No, I understand exactly what you mean,” she says. “Because he’s _my_ father. Which makes him my responsibility.”

“To _save_.”

She barks a short, harsh laugh. “Alright, well I’m sorry for your delusions, but I didn’t come to praise Vader, I came to bury him. So step aside.”

“You’re my sister,” he says, belatedly.

“And as your sister I’m asking you to _step aside_.”

He doesn’t. And that’s when the Stormtroopers find them.

* * *

 

Later, lying on the floor beneath the Emperor’s seat, he reaches out a hand to his sister. _Leia_ , he’s learned. Her name is Leia.

The Emperor is dead, and so is Vader, although that’s not entirely accurate, he thinks. His father died as Anakin Skywalker.

“Luke,” Leia says, wounded, her eyes meeting his across the floor as their fingers touch. “You were right.” Unfortunately, the two may not be far behind their father. “You were right,” she breathes.

* * *

 

Minutes later, they’re shaken awake by an urgent woman there to collect them before the Death Star blows up. “Who is he, ma’am?” she asks Leia.

Leia smiles blearily as she’s helped up. “He’s my brother.” 


End file.
